Action Alert from the Wisconsin Council of Churches. This drives me nuts, this is the one benefit that people down on their luck can apply for and get and get quickly. Unlike medical care, disability, housing assistance, child care assistance, etc.
| Hungry Families in Wisconsin Need Your Voice |
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Tell your Senators and Representative that Cutting the Food Stamp Program is Not an Option! Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ — Matthew 15:32 Background The food stamp program is this country’s first line of defense against hunger. During this period of economic recession and high unemployment, the need for this program has grown. Between 2005 and 2011, the percentage of Wisconsin residents using food stamps doubled, from 7% to 14%. And the program works: nationwide, SNAP (the food stamp program) kept 4.7 million persons from falling below the poverty line in 2011. Yet, as negotiations move forward on the federal budget and the Farm Bill (which authorizes funding for food stamps and other anti-hunger programs), some in Congress are calling for drastic cuts in the food stamp program. This would be wrong as well as unwise. Over time, spending money to reduce hunger more than pays for itself. It reduces long-term social costs such as the problems hungry children have in school and the health problems of people who don’t eat properly. More importantly, cutting help for this most basic human need would be immoral. Children and seniors suffer the worst consequences from hunger, in terms of its impact on their health and cognitive abilities. By the same token, helping children and adults get enough to eat improves their learning and productivity, and keeps health costs down. We need to be good stewards of our money. But it is morally wrong to cut billions of dollars from the food stamp program, which benefits those who are genuinely in need, while cutting taxes for those who are the most well-off. Tell your Senators and Representative that Cutting the Food Stamp Program is Not an Option!
For more information, see:
Stagnant Economy Boosts Food Stamp Usage (Wisconsin Council on Children and Families) – with data on individual counties. Information and updates about SNAP (food stamps) and other federal nutrition programs from the Food Research and Action Center “The Power of the Safety Net: What the Supplemental Poverty Measure Shows” (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) Advocacy EAlert is an occasional notice from the Wisconsin Council of Churches on actions you can take regarding pending legislation and other public policy issues. The recommended actions are based on the policy statements of the Wisconsin Council of Churches, which can be found at http://www.wichurches.org/
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